Android 4.4, Nexus 5 phones move to integrate apps, Web

Updated 5:49 pm, Thursday, October 31, 2013

Photo: Associated Press

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This image provided by Google shows its new Nexus 5 phone, which was unveiled Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. The Nexus 5 phone is the first device to run on the latest version of Google's Android operating system, nicknamed after the Kit Kat candy bar. The phone and software are designed to learn and anticipate a person's interest and needs. (AP Photo/Google) less

This image provided by Google shows its new Nexus 5 phone, which was unveiled Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. The Nexus 5 phone is the first device to run on the latest version of Google's Android operating system, ... more

Photo: Associated Press

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The Nexus 5 phone provides access to Google services and moves to better integrate apps and the Web.

The Nexus 5 phone provides access to Google services and moves to better integrate apps and the Web.

Photo: Associated Press

Android 4.4, Nexus 5 phones move to integrate apps, Web

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In 2010, when Google introduced the Nexus One, its first flagship smartphone, the tech press breathlessly wondered if it was the "iPhone killer."

Nobody really talks that way anymore. It turns out there was no iPhone killer. Instead, the battle for mobile supremacy evolved into a war of attrition, as manufacturers and software makers fought and scraped for each percentage point of market share, device by device, version by version.

Rarely are there radical leaps forward these days. Instead, the contest is a series of shuffling steps on speed, performance, touch and design.

Enter the Nexus 5, which Google introduced Thursday morning along with the much-awaited update of its Android operating system. The device fits squarely into the industry's recent pattern. It's a good, modern smartphone - true 4G LTE speeds, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, an 8MB rear camera with image stabilization - but there isn't a lot on the hardware side to quicken the pulse.

The more interesting, and ultimately revealing, stuff is on the software side.

Google's mobile strategy has always been about drawing people into its services and retaining its hold on Web search even as people spend more of their online time with smartphone and tablet apps. But it has perhaps never been more evident than in the release of Android 4.4, known as KitKat, and its implementation on the Nexus 5.

Google tools

The new phone, developed with LG, prioritizes access to Google's own tools, featuring the search bar across each screen. Google Voice Search can be instantly activated by saying, "OK Google." Google Now, the company's tool for offering unprompted but useful information based on what it knows about the user, can be accessed with a single swipe.

"We wanted to focus on what Google does best: instant access to information and letting computers do the hard work for you," Johanna Wright, vice president of mobile search at Google, said at a press event at the company's San Francisco offices.

Indeed, many of the features introduced Thursday take advantage of Google's core strengths, including access to massive amounts of online data, vast networks of servers and sophisticated machine learning algorithms.

Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president in charge of Android, stressed that the company is bringing "Google smarts, the power of what we do in the cloud, across your entire experience."

Google has layered its search capabilities into the phone dialer, allowing users to ring up a business with a keyword search. The Hangouts app allows instant insertion of Google maps to indicate a person's location, or photos from Google Drive and other cloud storage providers.

Among other things, Google Now has been able to alert users, based on their calendar entries and real-time traffic information, when they're at risk of being late for a meeting. It can serve up their boarding pass when they arrive at the airport.

Timely information

But additional "cards" revealed on Thursday can surface posts from infrequently updated blogs that a user has shown interest in, and provide timely information when they arrive at particular landmarks. That might include geyser eruption schedules when a person walks up to Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park (if that person, for some odd reason, wanted to stare at their smartphone at that moment).

Pichai also showed off an upcoming feature. In the next few weeks, Google's mobile searches will begin to return results not just from the Web, but from information within apps loaded onto a phone. A search for a restaurant, for instance, could produce standard search results, as well as a direct link into the section of the OpenTable app allowing a user to make reservations for that night.

Google is initially working with 10 app developers on this feature, including OpenTable, Moviefone, Etsy, Trulia and IMDb. The company will make the feature available to other developers in the next few months.

"We are starting to bring apps and the Web together," Pichai said.

In other words, Google might have found a clever way of mitigating the risks in the rise of apps for a company that makes the vast majority of its money through searches on the open Web.

The other major advance in KitKat was finding a way to bring the latest Android version to potentially billions of people in the developing world. Specifically, the company took great technical pains to make sure the software and apps developed for it can work seamlessly on cheaper phones with less memory. That is to say, the sort of phones that are popular in countries like Brazil, India and Mexico, where use of Android is growing three times faster than in developed markets.

"It's stunning growth, and we want to make sure it works great," Pichai said.

But it's also clearly an attempt to reduce fragmentation of the operating system. Millions of devices running varied flavors of Android create serious challenges for developers, who are forced to create multiple versions with different features and experiences.

Google is offering a tool kit that will allow developers to "degrade apps gracefully" when they are loaded onto lower-end phones. Google did this for its own apps - for example, automatically altering the user interface of the Chrome browser.

"We truly care about getting Android to work for the next 5 billion people," Pichai said.

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